LONG BUSINESS PERMIT BACKLOG? HOW CALIFORNIA

With California continuing to suffer from its worst sustained stretch of unemployment in the Golden State since the Great Depression — the latest data put it at 9.8 percent — one would assume that state leaders would be doing all they can to help create jobs. But that’s too much to ask, apparently.

We got a fresh reminder of this lassitude from a Sacramento Bee report about the six-week waiting period to get a registration permit for a new business. By contrast, in New York, it takes seven days.

Then there’s this twist: In New York, if business applicants pay an extra $150, they can get permits in two hours. In California, expedited processing is available for an extra fee — but only to those who travel to the secretary of state’s office in Sacramento.

That’s right. The state that’s home to Silicon Valley hasn’t mastered rudimentary online registration, one more in the long list of computer woes afflicting California’s government.

A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen insists she is concerned about this backlog. But that’s just like Gov. Jerry Brown’s media aides insisting that he’s concerned about job growth.

Rhetoric without action is worthless. But for the 2 million Californians who want work and can’t find it, that’s all they’re getting out of Sacramento.